Wednesday, 23 April 2014

MPOV: Jobs

The film opens in 2001 with a slightly older Steve Jobs
(Ashton Kutcher) introducing the iPod at an Apple Town Hall meeting.

It then flashes back to Reed College in 1974. Jobs had
already dropped out due to the high expense of tuition but was still attending
classes with the approval of Dean Jack Dudman (James Woods) who took him under
his wing. Jobs is particularly interested in a course on calligraphy. He meets
up with his friend Daniel Kottke (Lukas Haas) who is excited to see that Jobs
is holding a copy of Be Here Now by Baba Ram Dass. Influenced by this book and
his experiences with LSD, Jobs and Kottke spend time in India.

Two years later, Jobs is back in Los Altos, California
living at home with his adoptive parents Paul (John Getz) and Clara (Lesley Ann
Warren). He is working for Atari and develops a partnership with his friend
Steve Wozniak (Josh Gad) after he sees that Wozniak has built a personal
computer (the Apple I). They name their new company Apple Computer, though
there already is a company called Apple Records that is owned by The Beatles
(Wozniak then teases Jobs that this is symbolic of his preference for Bob
Dylan). Wozniak gives a demonstration of the Apple I at the Homebrew Computer
Club, where Jobs receives a contract with Paul Terrell (Brad William Henke).
Jobs asks his mechanic/carpenter father Paul for permission to use the family
garage (set up as a carpentry/tool center) for his new company. His father
agrees and Jobs then adds Kottke, Bill Fernandez (Victor Rasuk), Bill Atkinson
(Nelson Franklin), Chris Espinosa (Eddie Hassell), and later Rod Holt (Ron
Eldard) to the Apple team to build Apple I computers. Terrell is disappointed
by what they produce which forces Jobs to seek capital elsewhere. After many
failed attempts by Jobs to gain venture capital, Mike Markkula (Dermot
Mulroney) invests in the company which allows them to move forward.

The above taken from Wikipedia.

Wow, didn't know Steve was a hippy then... anyway, Ashton did a great job portraying Steve even up to the way he walked... so surreal. Unfortunately, I didn't like the ending. Well, for 1, it started lengthy. Then towards the last 1/2 hour or so, it felt as though it's been shrunk to fit in within the time limit. Suddenly he's married. Suddenly he's back at Apple. Suddenly the end. A very rushed ending. Overall a good bio-movie of a great visionary, a true legend but the flow of the ending could have been better.